Srinivasan: Venture contracts need non-key man provisions for acqui-hire shutdowns
Balaji Srinivasan · Steven Sinofsky & Balaji Srinivasan on the Future of M&A, AI & Tech · Aug 8, 2025 · at 48:32
Balaji Srinivasan proposes a contract mechanism to handle regulatory evasion and deal friction in AI acqui-hires and acqui-fires.
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“We need to have a non-key man provision. Which is, this is the designated executive who is in the event of an aquifer-like thing, and we can decide how to describe it. It's not an acquisition because there was an acquisition, then you have all the FTC, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah stuff, right? But in the event of an aquifer, this non-key man stays behind. He gets maybe a little more money than he, or a lot more money, whatever, very, very negotiates because he's not getting the status of being acquired, okay? But He executes an orderly shutdown of the company, doesn't have any drama, and just dividends out the money, ok?”
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